raja without lineal heirs, and was annexed by the British government. The Bhonsla raja of Nagpur died without lineal heirs in 1853, and his territory was likewise annexed. The house of Holkar remained faithful to its engagements with the British government, and its position as a feudatory of the empire was maintained. In Sindhia’s territory, by reason of internal feuds, the British had to undertake measures which were successfully terminated after the battles of Maharajpur and Panniar in 1843. But on the whole the house of Sindhia remained faithful. Sindhia himself was actively loyal during the Mutiny. The gaekwar gradually fell under British control towards the close of the 18th century, and his house never engaged in hostilities with the British government. The ex-pēshwa lived to old age at Bithur, and died in 1857. His adopted son grew up to be the Nana Sahib, of infamous memory, who took a leading part in the Mutiny.
See J. Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas (3 vols., 1826); T. D. Broughton, Letters written in a Mahratta Camp (1813); M. G. Ranade, Rise of the Maratha Power (Bombay, 1900). (R. T.; J. S. Co.)
MAHSEER, or Mahaseer (Barbus mosal), a kind of barbel, abundant in the rivers of India, especially in pools of the upper and more rapid streams where they issue from the mountainous part of the country. It is one of the largest species of the Cyprinid family, attaining to a length of 3 to 5 ft., and sometimes exceeding a weight of 70 ℔. Its body is well-proportioned, rather elongate, and somewhat like that of the European barbel, but covered with very large scales, of which there are only twenty-five or twenty-seven placed along the lateral line; the dorsal fin is armed with a long and strong spine, and the mouth provided with four slender and short barbels. The lips are sometimes produced into fleshy lobes. To the fisherman in India the mahseer affords the same kind of sport as the salmon in the British Isles, and it rivals that fish as regards size, strength and activity. Its flesh is likewise much esteemed.
MAI, ANGELO (1782–1854), Italian cardinal and philologist, was born of humble parents at Schilpario in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy, on the 7th of March 1782. In 1799 he entered the Society of Jesus, and in 1804 he became a teacher of classics in the college of Naples. After completing his studies at the Collegium Romanum, he lived for some time at Orvieto, where he was engaged in teaching and palaeographical studies. The political events of 1808 necessitated his withdrawal from Rome (to which he had meanwhile returned) to Milan, where in 1813 he was made custodian of the Ambrosian library. He now threw himself with characteristic energy and zeal into the task of examining the numerous MSS. committed to his charge, and in the course of the next six years was able to restore to the world a considerable number of long-lost works. Having withdrawn from the Society of Jesus, he was invited to Rome in 1819 as chief keeper of the Vatican library. In 1833 he was transferred to the office of secretary of the congregation of the Propaganda; on the 12th of February 1838 he was raised to the dignity of cardinal. He died at Castelgandolfo, near Albano, on the 8th of September 1854.
It is on his skill as a reader of palimpsests that Mai’s fame
chiefly rests. To the period of his residence at Milan belong:
Fragments of Cicero’s Pro Scauro, Pro Tullio, Pro Flacco, In
Clodium et Curionem, De aere alieno Milonis, De rege (Alexandrino
(1814); M. Corn. Frontonis opera inedita, cum epistolis item
ineditis, Antonini Pii, Marci Aurelii, Lucii Veri et Appiani
(1815; new ed., 1823, with more than 100 additional letters found
in the Vatican library); portions of eight speeches of Quintus
Aurelius Symmachus; fragments of Plautus; the oration of Isaeus
De hereditate Cleonymi; the last nine books of the Antiquities
of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and a number of other works. M.
Tullii Ciceronis de republica quae supersunt appeared at Rome
in 1822; Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, e vaticanis codicibus
edita in 1825–1838; Classici scriptores e vaticanis codicibus editi in
1828–1838; Spicilegium romanum in 1839–1844; and Patrum
nova bibliotheca in 1845–1853. His edition of the celebrated
Codex vaticanus, completed in 1838, but not published (ostensibly
on the ground of inaccuracies) till four years after his death
(1858), is the least satisfactory of his labours and was superseded
by the edition of Vercellone and Cozza (1868), which itself leaves
much to be desired. Although Mai was not as successful
in textual criticism as in the decipherment of manuscripts, he
will always be remembered as a laborious and persevering
pioneer, by whose efforts many ancient writings have been
rescued from oblivion.
See B. Prina, Biografia del cardinale Angelo Mai (Bergamo, 1882), a scientific work, which gives a full and, at the same time, a just appreciation of his work; Cozza-Luzi, Epistolario del card. Angelo Mai (Bergamo, 1883); life by G. Poletto (Siena, 1887).
MAIA, in Greek mythology, the eldest of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and the Oceanid Pleïone. She and her sisters, born on Mt Cyllene in Arcadia, are sometimes called mountain goddesses. In a cave of Cyllene Maia became by Zeus the mother of the god Hermes. The story is told in the Hymn to Hermes attributed to Homer. She was identified by the Romans with Maia Majesta, an old Italian goddess of spring, to whom a sacrifice was offered on the 1st of May by the priest of Vulcan.
MAIDA, a town of Calabria, Italy, in the province of Catanzaro, from which it is 30 m. W.S.W. direct, and 12 m. N.N.E. of Pizzo by rail (the station is 8 m. W. of the town). Pop. (1901), 5190. The town gives its name to the plain of Maida, where in 1806 British troops under Sir John Stuart defeated the French under Regnier. The names Maida Hill and Maida Vale in London are derived from this battle.
MAIDAN, an Indian term for any open plain. The Maidan is the name of the park in Calcutta, surrounding Fort William, where society people drive in the afternoon. The name is also applied to one of the valleys in the Afridi country of Tirah, and to the plateau portion of the state of Mysore.
MAIDEN, or Maid, a young unmarried girl. “Maid” is a shortened form of “maiden,” O. Eng. maegden, which represents a diminutive of a Teutonic word meaning “young person,” of either sex. An old English word “may,” meaning a kinsman or kinswoman, and also a virgin or girl, represents the original. In early usage “maiden” as meaning “virgin” is frequently applied to the male sex, thus, in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, Sir Percyvale is called a “parfyte clene megden.” Apart from the direct applications of the word to the unmarried state, such as “maiden name,” “maiden lady,” &c., the word is used adjectivally, implying the preservation of the first state of an object, or indicating a first effort of any kind. Probably a “maiden” fortress is one which has never fallen, though the New English Dictionary suggests that the various “maiden castles” in England, usually ancient earthworks, may have been so called from being so strong that they could be defended by maidens, and points out that Edinburgh Castle, called “maiden-castle” by William Drummond of Hawthornden (Speech for Edinburgh to the King), is styled Castrum puellarum, the “castle of the maidens,” in Geoffrey of Monmouth. A “maiden” assize, circuit or session is one at which there are no prisoners for trial; a “maiden over” or “maiden” in cricket is an over from which no runs are scored. A “maiden speech” is the first speech made by a member of parliament in the house. In the Annual Register for 1794 (quoted in N.E.D.) the expression, with reference to Canning’s first speech, is said to be “according to the technical language of the house.” “Maiden” is applied to several objects, to a movable framework or horse for drying and airing of linen, to a washerwoman’s “dolly” or wooden beater, to the “kirnbaby” formed of the last sheaf of corn reaped which formerly figured in the Scottish harvest homes, and to the beheading instrument, known as the “Scottish maiden” (see below). “Maid,” apart from its primary sense of an unmarried woman, is chiefly used for a domestic female servant, usually with a qualifying word prefixed, such as “housemaid,” “parlourmaid,” &c.
The title of “Maid of Honour” is given to an unmarried lady attached to the personal suite of a queen. The custom of sending young girls of noble or good birth to the court of a
